A vapers take on events. The posts on this blog are based on my own independent thought and research, and are not funded by, associated with or sponsored by any other person, entity, or industry. I am a private citizen and passionate vaping advocate, nothing more.
Competing interests: None.

Thursday, 20 February 2014

The Shame of the Shameless

This will be a short post. I don't need much space to put across my reaction to today's news.

Today, one single man, Martin Schultz, decided that our democratically elected MEP's should not have the right to vote on the individual provisions of the EU's proposed Tobacco Products Directive which includes a de facto ban of every single refillable e-cigarette on the market. They will now be given a single yes/no vote on the directive as a whole, virtually guaranteeing that it will be passed into law.

That laws can be devised in late night session behind closed doors that affect the health of over 7 million European ex-smokers, with NO regard for scientific evidence, with NO consultation with the user's they seek to regulate, and with no oversight by national governments is scandalous.

That the law may well drive hundreds of thousands, maybe into the millions of voting citizens who have chosen to leave smoking behind them back into the deadly clutches of tobacco, a substance that will kill one in two of them, is criminal.

That the public has been largely kept in the dark throughout the entire process due to a lack of media coverage of what has been called the most important public health debate in history is a feat of negligence and dereliction of journalistic duty that is impossible to comprehend.

That this is done in the name of "public health" is nothing more than a sick joke.

I have NEVER in my LIFE felt more victimised, isolated and excluded than since I took the simple decision to stop smoking tobacco and switch to e-cigarettes. I will not return to smoking. I will do whatever it takes, even if that means breaking the law by buying on the black market or by illegally importing from overseas, to protect my health and my family's health from tobacco smoke.